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The Internet

11-Nation Raid on Net Pirates 487

Posted by CmdrTaco from the won't-somebody-please-think-of-the-children dept.
Cobb writes "The US Justice Department announce a global crack-down on large scale internet pirates distributing first run movies. According to the article: "FBI agents and investigators in the other nations conducted 90 searches starting Wednesday, arresting four people and shutting down at least eight major online distribution servers for pirated works, a Justice official said. Authorities also seized hundreds of computers in raids in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom.""
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11-Nation Raid on Net Pirates More

11-Nation Raid on Net Pirates

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  • That explains it... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TripMaster Monkey ( 862126 ) * on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:19PM (#12952605)

    Authorities also seized hundreds of computers in raids in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

    Hmm....mabye that's why I haven't been able to telnet into my server at home all day... ^_^

    Seriously, though, Sweeden is conspicuously absent from the 11-nation 'coalition of the willing' listed above, which means that The Pirate Bay [thepiratebay.org] will be staying up, at least... =P
    • Similarly, http://www.torrentspy.com/ [torrentspy.com] and http://www.isohunt.com/ [isohunt.com] are still operational. Not sure what countries those two sites are hosted from though.

      • Re:That explains it... (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Don't forget PacketNews [packetnews.com].

      • Re:That explains it... (Score:3, Informative)

        by KronicD ( 568558 )
        From what I understand the sites targeted were topsites, rather than p2p sites aimed at the masses.

        For those who don't understand what the difference is a topsite is an ftp which receives a release from a group, from the top site it is distrubted to many other ftps and finally onto usenet and the p2p networks.

        The sites at the top were targeted, not the sites that most people have access to.

    • Re:That explains it... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by PDXNerd ( 654900 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:24PM (#12952672)
      Perhaps Sweden had better things to do with their police force, like arrest murderes, rapists, and real criminals. Not to say Movie Piracy is legal (morals aside), but the amount of manpower and resources this takes is absolutely ludicrous for the overall payoff.

      It would be interesting to see how much money this saved the movie industry - errr, I mean cost the rest of us (i.e. taxpayers) to fund this joint venture.
      • It would be interesting to see how much money this saved the movie industry - errr, I mean cost the rest of us (i.e. taxpayers) to fund this joint venture.

        Exactly. I'm so glad that we got to foot the bill for this ridiculous little witch hunt.

        I wonder how difficult it would be to learn Sweedish, anyway...although I believe that they speak English in Sealand. [sealandgov.com]

        • Re:That explains it... (Score:5, Interesting)

          by GutBomb ( 541585 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:37PM (#12952826) Homepage
          swedish is not that hard to learn (take it from me, an american that lived there for 2 years and learned the language sometime during the first), and sweden is also the land of 100mbit internet connections for around $40 a month :D

          there is a antipiratbyran (anti-pirate beaurau) but there have been scandals involved with them, such as planting pirated software on corporate computers in order to get themselves in the news.

          New laws are being considered there that would help crack down on sites like the pirate bay, but they are not there yet.

        • Re:That explains it... (Score:5, Funny)

          by Tibor the Hun ( 143056 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:39PM (#12952850)
          I don't think it'd be too hard to learn swedish.

          I believe it's just a matter of replacing Ws with Vs, extending the eeees, saying borgi-borgi-borgi a lot, and always talking about simple furniture and massages.

          But it would only be useful if you are into tall blondes, comfy surroundings, and appreciacion of common sense.

        • That's the problem when lobiest and rich men cloud the judgement of the guys who are supposed to be looking out for the people and not their own pocket books ;)
        • I wonder how difficult it would be to learn Sweedish

          A bit more difficult than it would be to learn how to spell "Swedish"...

          • English: Swedish
          • Swedish: Svenska
          • Swedish Chef: Svedeesh

      • Re:That explains it... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by computational super ( 740265 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:29PM (#12952741)

        You know, it's interesting how the punishment relates to the crime... every time I watch a DVD, it reminds me that the penalty for the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of copyrighted works, including those not for commercial gain, are investigated by the FBI and punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. IIRC, that's the same penalty you get for the distribution of CP. Seems like our priorities are screwed up somewhere (one way or the other).

        • Difference is in that 5 years as a CP offender, you're going to get raped over and over again. If you pirate (yar!) movies and get 5 years, you stand a better chance of not being subjected to the same.

          Enough of devil's advocate, that is seriously messed up. The fact that someone thinks that sharing a movie is equivalent in magnitude to the brutal and unnecessary victimization of an innocent child is disgusting. The person (or group of people) responsible for that should be sent to a shrink ASAP.

      • Re:That explains it... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by epicstruggle ( 311178 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:33PM (#12952783)
        "It would be interesting to see how much money this saved the movie industry - errr, I mean cost the rest of us (i.e. taxpayers) to fund this joint venture."

        Thats an interesting question, but your only looking at what it cost for the operations. It would be fair to hypothetically calculate the lost revenue the govermnent lost through taxation of legal sales.

        What i mean is that you pirate a game, no one really makes any money.
        If say 10% of those who pirate, actually went out and bought legal copies (went to theaters, ...) then the govermnent would get their share in taxes.

        • Re:That explains it... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Znork ( 31774 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:44PM (#12952893)
          Of course, the money saved by the copyright infringers probably goes to consume other products, and probably products from some more competetive industry. Those purchases would probably also be taxed, and even better, they would quite likely employ more local people per spent unit of currency and create more wealth as almost every production chain is more efficient than the intellectual monopoly industries.

          So, as a whole, society quite probably gains from piracy.

        • Re:That explains it... (Score:5, Funny)

          by CaymanIslandCarpedie ( 868408 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:50PM (#12952949) Journal
          Any money I save from pirating goes straight to booze and smokes! Govt makes much more money on those items, so they are losing money by trying to limit my pirating!

        • What i mean is that you pirate a game, no one really makes any money. If say 10% of those who pirate, actually went out and bought legal copies (went to theaters, ...) then the govermnent would get their share in taxes.

          They do. The Matrix Revolutions comes out, and lines and crowds at the theatre are ridiculous. Maybe some people want to see the movie before it's totally spoiled by people talking about it, but can't because they actually have jobs, so they pirate it. A large percentage of them in this

      • If you know where some murderers and rapists are hiding in mass numbers I'm sure the police would be interested to know. Last I heard they didn't hang out on websites advertising their activities to the world, hoping nobody would ever have the balls to cross a border to get them.

        Perhaps Sweden isn't a big player in the global entertainment industry and that's why they don't really care. Nah, you're probably right, it's because the government is ignoring murderers and rapists. The police just aren't think

    • Don't forget Poland!!!
    • Rumor has it, they're going after pirates of another sort [bbc.co.uk]...!

      Seriously, given the questionable legality of a lot of the movie industry (dubious contracts, the "zero profit syndrome", affiliations with drugs and prostitution rackets, the church of scientology - oops, that one's not illegal), the Governments involved are in essence assisting criminals with profiting from their crimes.

      Now, I don't know about most of the countries listed, but I know the US has laws against such profiting.

      Britain is a slig

  • Gee, no China? (Score:5, Funny)

    by bensafrickingenius ( 828123 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:20PM (#12952610)
    I just can't believe our friends in the Chinese government didn't want to get in on this crackdown...

    • Re:Gee, no China? (Score:4, Informative)

      by no_opinion ( 148098 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:48PM (#12952924)
      You jest, but actually China is stepping up efforts [redherring.com] due to international pressure.

  • Coordination of Efforts (Score:5, Funny)

    by Deinhard ( 644412 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:21PM (#12952622)
    This is not meant to be a flame, but...

    If the US Justice Department can coordinate such an effort among 11 different nations and justice systems, why can't we find Osama Bin Laden?
    • Because Osama Bin Laden won't bring them money.
    • Because Pakistan, China, Iran, etc. are not in that list?

    • New Tshirt for sale! (Score:5, Funny)

      by gosand ( 234100 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:29PM (#12952731)
      If the US Justice Department can coordinate such an effort among 11 different nations and justice systems, why can't we find Osama Bin Laden?

      Makes me want make the Tshirt:

      Osama Bin Laden is pirating music
      NOW will you go catch the fucker?

      • Re:New Tshirt for sale! (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Osama Bin Laden is pirating music
        NOW will you go catch the fucker?

        Between you and me, strictly off the record of course :) NO

        You see, Osama is our boy. He was funded and trained by the CIA. The master plan is to take away your rights and freedom, as well as to centralize power so only a few people have all the money and power. So the rich need a boogeyman, something to threaten the people with, a scapegoat. Some event will happen, "terrorist act", and immediately afterwards, they'll start pointing a fi

      • Done and Done (Score:3, Informative)

        by Flumbo ( 880525 )
        Get yer tshirts! http://www.cafepress.com/amalgamatedimag [cafepress.com]

    • If the US Justice Department can coordinate such an effort among 11 different nations and justice systems, why can't we find Osama Bin Laden?

      Probably because he doesn't download movies. He just goes to the theater in Detroit.
    • Because Osama doesn't isn't a media mogul with an empire of politicians begging for "contributions". Didn't you get the memo? "Infringing on copyrights" is a more henious crime than "stabbing someone in the spinal cord with an ice pick".

      I wonder if we added: "Pirated 200 terrabytes of music and movies from the MPAA and RIAA" next to "Orchestrated and funded a terrorist entity responsible for thousands of murders globally", if we'd catch him any faster.

    • Re:Coordination of Efforts (Score:5, Informative)

      by 00squirrel ( 772984 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:31PM (#12952766)
      If the US Justice Department can coordinate such an effort among 11 different nations and justice systems, why can't we find Osama Bin Laden?

      Bin Laden didn't pirate Star Wars did he? What do you think the Department of Homeland Security is supposed to be doing? They can't be bothered with people like Bin Laden when the real threat is people downloading MP3's. [cnn.com] Read down the article for DHS involvement info.

    • Maybe we need to tell the MPAA and RIAA that Osama is a huge pirate of first-run copyrighted works, and then they'll get their friends in international law enforcement to find him and shut him down.
      This is brilliant. Whay hasn't anyone thought of it before? :)
    • We cant find Osama because he is hiding in a datacentre in sweden somewhere.

    • Re:Coordination of Efforts (Score:5, Insightful)

      by meringuoid ( 568297 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @04:42PM (#12953464)
      If the US Justice Department can coordinate such an effort among 11 different nations and justice systems, why can't we find Osama Bin Laden?

      As long as we're looking for Osama bin Laden, we have a valid pretext for continuing our agenda of social control. 'We need these extra powers to protect ourselves from terrorists. We mustn't be too squeamish about civil liberties. After all, Osama bin Laden is still out there.' Once we actually catch Osama bin Laden we suddenly have a problem. People will ask: 'Doesn't that mean the war is over?' That undermines the entire project.

      Therefore it's better to have a token search for Osama that occasionally turns up a suitably lunatic Arab whom we can market to the press as The Al-Qaeda Nth-In-Command, and meanwhile go ahead with the police state project and the Middle Eastern Imperial Oil Hegemony plan.

  • Just pirate bad movies (Score:3, Funny)

    by Trigun ( 685027 ) <evil@evil e m p i r e . a t h .cx> on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:21PM (#12952627)
    Pirate the ones that the MPAA are unwilling to admit to making, and you're safe!

    Nobody ever got arrested for pirating 'Gigli'

  • Not the first post! Woo hoo! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cshark ( 673578 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:21PM (#12952629)
    I still don't see why they don't go after the real pirates, who make and distribute these things commercially, and mostly in foreign countries. Seems to me that the non net pirates are probably a bigger threat. But they wouldn't need an international crack down force to find them (just walk through manhatten sometime), so I imagine they have to spend money on something. A shame.

    • Re:Not the first post! Woo hoo! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Vodak ( 119225 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:30PM (#12952751)
      The reason they go after the online community is simple. The current beleif is that everyone eho downloads a movie, mp3, or game is a direct sales deduction for the bottom line.

      Using that structure of thought.. in the grand scheme of things. The guys on the corenr selling these copies are little fish in the big internet pond. Hell, you might even stop a couple of them pirates too since alot of these guys are just downloading them from the interweb as well.

      Big scale pirates? Well China is our(US) allie right.
    • I wonder that also - alot. Since the pirates which distribute the software / movies commerically are ripping off - not only the consumer, but the author/owner.

      For example www.cdrbstore.net [cdrbstore.net] is obivously a website selling pirated software. They are still up and doing business.

      I'd much rather see them taking down someone that makes a PROFIT off stealing than someone that gives it away free.
    • I know exactly what you mean. Here in NY. You can walk into any of the major shopping malls and find a pirated dvd booth setup. I know of 2 on Long Island.

      The problem is... they only sell pirated asian films... and Hollywood doesnt care about that...

      No MONEY in it for them :) So why bust them?

      These guys have been working in 2 malls with a booth for atleast 10+ years. Pirated VHS tapes, to now very convincing looking pirated DVDs

      Hollywood doesnt give a shit because its Asian cinema and they have no stake

    • Real Pirates? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by SlightlyOldGuy ( 805345 )
      I thought Real Pirates did things like taking over ships at sea and murdering their crews. This is a nasty craime that still takes place in some parts of the world. How did this term get attached to copyright violations? Should we be using it?

  • Well... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    this whole thing would have happened earlier, but the FBI had to figure out how to say "Avast you scallawags" and "Aaaar!" in 11 different languages.

  • 11 nations, 90 raids (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Haenk ( 773712 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:23PM (#12952653)
    and only 4 people arrested? Man, industry seems to be able to buy a lot of "justice" nowadays...

  • A good thing (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Shadow Wrought ( 586631 ) <shadow.wroughtNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:25PM (#12952677) Homepage Journal
    I realize that most of the /. crows has an anti **AA stance and to a certain extent I do as well. However, it is people like this who cause the damages cited by the **AA types, which in turn lead to the heavy handed **AA policies. It is nice to see those most responsible for the problem caught. Good riddance.

    • Re:A good thing (Score:2, Insightful)

      by TubeSteak ( 669689 )
      I'm calling Bull Shit

      You notice how all the countries they named are 'first' world countries?

      How come they don't have any Asian countries in their little piracy party?

      What about Russia? You'd think ex-KGB Putin would love this type of iron gloved action

      The fact is, the countries they mentioned are countries where most people can afford to buy dvd's or pay 10 bucks to see a movie.

      Cheap Dvd's and Vcd's cost the **AA more than the $50 million they claim from this raid.

  • Maybe the MPAA listened... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by slapout ( 93640 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:25PM (#12952681)
    ...to Wil Wheaton:

    "I'm no expert, but it seems like the MPAA would get a much bigger return on their investment if they stopped going after college students and went after the factories that turn out legitimate movies by day, and switch over to pirated material at night."

    --From the Wil Wheaton Slashdot interview
    http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/0 6/27/0926218/ [slashdot.org]
    • I've always wondered this as well, but realised that the RIAA/MPAA is smart enough to look the other direction. I figure these asian or 3rd world manufacturing companies pay their slave wages at $0.10/hr or something crazy like that. Their operating costs are increadibly low even if you include writting off all resultant losses due to piracy.

      So just remember kids....piracy is VERY BAD, but not as bad as paying someone minimum wage in Iowa to manufacture CDs and DVDs domestically.
    • Yes, I can just see the meeting between the 11 nations' head of police:

      US copper: Sirs, we have been reading this Slashdot site, where Wil Wheaton (no no, stop cursing, he's not *really* like Wesley Crusher) has given us great insight. Want to hear what it is?
      Germany: Ach, ya, I vant to know vat Vil Vheaton said.
      France: Oui Oui, let'z ear it!
      US: Well then, he said we should go after the source of pirated stuff, and not the downloaders. Isn't that very insightful?
      UK: Bloody hell yes, let's go get the bugge
    • Uh, yeah..that's not what happened though. So they didn't listen, in actuality.

  • 11-Nation RAID? (Score:5, Funny)

    by ndansmith ( 582590 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:27PM (#12952709)
    Wow, an 11 nation RAID [wikipedia.org]? Now that is redundancy!
  • Not that I have any particular sympathy for them, but you'd think these people would learn. This is the same kind of thing we've seen for the past decade with international raids against groups like DoD.

    And I don't mean "learn" as in, stop pirating. But there is software out there that would make them more or less invulnerable to this sort of sting operation. Duh.
    • Well, a good start would be to not include massively gratuitous "credits" files with everything they pirate.

      (I'd normally include a sarcastic example with a comment such as this, but I can already hear the lameness filter salivating.)

  • Great! Now the world is a better place... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by presarioD ( 771260 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:30PM (#12952749)
    ... for the corporations to arbitrate and exploit (legally) with the backup of politicians and law enforcement agencies.

    I knew it that my crazy uncle was right when he said that:

    police is there to protect the rich from the poor. Nothing else.

    Don't worry uncle I have faith in the system. For each pirate server they shut down, three more will spring out.



    On other news today: Software piracy in its last throes. Exclusive interview with Joe Sixpack Pirate. Administrator officials have been regularly holding meetings with pirates...

  • Movies have been downloadable for years now, so why suddenly have the feds gone apeshit over Episode 3??

    And from TFA:

    Those groups are believed responsible for stealing and distributing copyrighted works including films "Star War Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,"...

    It's not like these warez groups broke into George's office and stole his film reel.. why don't they focus on the person that leaked it from Lucasfilm in the first place?

    • Movies have been downloadable for years now, so why suddenly have the feds gone apeshit over Episode 3??

      Wow, you know what, I was downloading the complete Knight Rider DVD rip the other day, and I was drenched in cold sweat, expecting my door to be knocked down any minute and an entire SWAT team barging in to arrest me!!

      I mean honestly, why do you need to ask? it's obvious Georges Lucas has his hand down many congresscritters' pants, and probably his other hand quietly slipping money in their wallets...

  • Don't see any effect (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JohanV ( 536228 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:31PM (#12952760) Homepage
    When they raided last year in Operation Fastlink [slashdot.org] I saw some significant [tudelft.nl] changes [tudelft.nl] in traffic patterns. This time, I am not seeing anything.

  • Have to... (Score:5, Funny)

    by mogrify ( 828588 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:32PM (#12952772) Homepage
    I'm gonna fight 'em all
    Eleven-nation army couldn't hold me back
    I'm gonna rip it off
    Taking their films right behind their back ...
    And if I catch 'em coming back my way
    I'm gonna serve 'em to you
    And that aint what they want to hear
    But thats what I'll do ...
  • FBI agents and investigators in the other nations conducted 90 searches starting Wednesday, arresting four people and shutting down at least eight major online distribution servers for pirated works

    In other news, 78 people are shaken up from being raided over something as stupid as filesharing.

    The FBI, brought to you by the RIAA

  • The Article (Score:5, Informative)

    by TubeSteak ( 669689 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:36PM (#12952816) Journal
    The Associated Press Updated: 3:16 p.m. ET June 30, 2005

    WASHINGTON - The government announced an 11-nation crackdown Thursday on Internet piracy organizations responsible for stealing copies of the latest Star Wars film and other movies, games and software programs worth at least $50 million.

    FBI agents and investigators in the other nations conducted 90 searches starting Wednesday, arresting four people, seizing hundreds of computers and shutting down at least eight major online distribution servers for pirated works.

    The Justice Department "is striking at the top of the copyright piracy supply chain -- a distribution chain that provides the vast majority of illegal digital content now available online," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said.

    Called Operation Site Down, the crackdown involved undercover FBI operations run out of Chicago, San Francisco and Charlotte, N.C., and involved help from authorities in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

    Among those arrested was Chirayu Patel of Fremont, Calif., on charges of violating federal copyright protection laws. Patel is alleged to be a member of a "warez" group, a kind of underground Internet co-op that is set up to trade in copyrighted materials.

    Warez (pronounced "wares") groups are extraordinarily difficult to infiltrate because users talk only in encrypted chat rooms, their computer servers require passwords and many are located overseas, the FBI has said.

    The investigations targeted "release groups" that are the original sources of pirated works that can be distributed worldwide in hours. Among the warez groups targeted are RiSCISO, Myth, TDA, LND, Goodfellaz, Hoodlum, Vengeance, Centropy, Wasted Time, Paranoid, Corrupt, Gamerz, AdmitONE, Hellbound, KGS, BBX, KHG, NOX, NFR, CDZ, TUN and BHP.

    Those groups are believed responsible for stealing and distributing copyrighted works including films "Star War Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," and Autodesk's Autocad 2006 and Adobe's Photoshop software.

    Warez groups differ from popular file-swapping networks, where millions of files are shared without precautions to limit access.

    Last month, authorities shut down a popular Web site that facilitated the downloading of movies and other materials. Investigators said many of the copyright movies were available through the Elite Torrents site even before their commercial release. No arrests were announced at the time.

    President Bush signed a new law last month setting tough penalties of up to 10 years in prison for anyone caught distributing a movie or song before its commercial release.

    Though I'm not up-to-date on my "warez" kn0wl3dge
    Myth and Centropy are old skool and HUGE.

    as of 5/31 "Rumors have it that Centropy is going INTERNAL on all future releases"
    Looks like too little, too late.

  • I love how the FBI is wasting our money doing this shit. I know, financially, a few people are hurting b/c of piracy. But, I can think of a few better things for the feds to target right now. But I guess all the pedophiles in Florida or extremists in Indonesia aren't deserving of the FBI's time anymore. Let's target some geeks.

  • What'd be cool... (Score:3, Funny)

    by CrazyJim2 ( 857610 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:40PM (#12952852) Homepage
    ...is if they made a MMORPG where you could get xp for reporting pirates. That way you could turn in your friends who run ftp servers full of games and movies for epic level items. There are a lot of MMORPG players out there and I'm sure they could catch all the pirates. You could call the game "Buccaneer's Bounty" and it could be awesome. If I wasn't so busy inventing True A.I. I'd probably make that game myself. If properly marketed it could make billions!

  • 10 years in prison? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Electric Eye ( 5518 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:40PM (#12952861)
    Also...
    So the law signed by Pres. Howdy Doody says a file/movie pirate can spend ten YEARS in jail?? Yet, people who rape and murder often get less. I see now that our priorities are finally straight. How much faster can we go downhill?

    • Carla Homolka (Score:3, Insightful)

      by HermanAB ( 661181 )
      who aided in the rape and death of her own little sister, amongst others, was released from jail today, having spent 12 years behind bars...
  • I think it's cool to be able to get whatever online too... but... hey, it's not legal and that carries a penalty when you get caught. It's not quite a "speeding ticket" but I feel pretty much the same way about that too... I speed and when I get caught, I pay my ticket (or get a lawyer to fix it or something). Whoever you are doing whatever it is you're doing, be prepared to lose whatever it is you have when you're playing this game 'cause once in a while, they'll come down on you... and just like this ti
  • I suppose "seized some major online distribution servers" sounds better than "nicked about a thousand bucks worth of equipment from some joe who never saw a dime from all the evil, evil crime he did.

    Besides, busting down some dorks' doors must be a whole lot easier than running around after, y'know, violent people.

    --grendel drago
  • When instead of going after international rings that actually do harm to society like spammers, shild pornographers, DDOSers, we go after those that our big industry complains about the most.
    • Its all about money and im as greedy as the next man. Its in the economies best interests to enforce these laws because in the end of the day, 'sharing' or allowing free downloads and charging for concerts or taking donations just does not bring in as much money as the current industry approach, and im not talking about money for artists, the ones without it are too small a voice to matter and the ones with it got it from selling music. Its all very well cracking down on paedophiles but paedophiles don't

  • July 4th Weekend (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kid_wonder ( 21480 ) <(public) (at) (kscottklein.com)> on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:47PM (#12952921) Homepage

    I wonder if they planned this crackdown timeframe with the MPAA so that the 'big' movie releases wouldn't be 'harmed' from the piracy of their movies?

    It seems a little conspicuous

  • It's good to see... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Das Auge ( 597142 )
    that they focusing on the important issues, like copyright infringement and not the child sex trade.

    This the kind of shit that happens when a corporations pocket book means more than the people that government was meant to server.

  • Whew! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 30, 2005 @03:52PM (#12952971)
    Good thing you can get 10 years in prison for pirating a movie... and only 5 for raping a child. Our society sure has it priorities straight!

  • the scene (Score:2, Interesting)

    by tropicdog ( 811766 )
    Recently I ran across the link for The Scene, http://www.welcometothescene.com/ [welcometothescene.com] Yeah, I know I'm a bit slow on some things and this has been out for some time (9 episodes already available with #10 coming out very soon) It is a "made for the Internet series" whose storyline revolves around this very topic, distributing pirated movies. Available by bittorrent. Check it out.
  • From TFA: President Bush signed a new law last month setting tough penalties of up to 10 years in prison for anyone caught distributing a movie or song before its commercial release.

    MPAA/RIAA: we're pleased to release a movie/song that has never been released before. To all you smart asses out there, say no to piracy!

    FBI: you said, it's never been commercially released?

    MPAA/RIAA: no, it's the hottest new release ever!

    FBI: okay, I'll have to put you in jail.

    MPAA/RIAA: why?

    FBI: this movie/song has neve

  • Profits up! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by IdleTime ( 561841 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @04:01PM (#12953032) Journal
    Well, at least we will be able to see the great effect this has on *AA's bottom line. If they don't report several billion dollar increase in revenue, I'd be shocked! Shocked, I'm tellin' ya'...

  • Well worth the man hours. (Score:5, Informative)

    by g0bshiTe ( 596213 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @04:19PM (#12953215)
    "According to the article: "FBI agents and investigators in the other nations conducted 90 searches starting Wednesday, arresting four people and shutting down at least eight major online distribution servers for pirated works, a Justice official said."


    This is a worthwhile venture for citizens tax dollars.

    All the effort put forth, planning, execution. And they managed to get 4 really hardened criminals off the streets.

    In an unrelated story, 700 elderly people died in the US today, from heat stroke after having their power turned off because they couldn't pay their bill.

  • That explains the 6:30am RCMP visit (seriously) (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Rikardon ( 116190 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @04:49PM (#12953537)
    My wife and I manage an apartment building; yesterday the RCMP showed up at 6:30am asking for a suite master key. They had a search warrant, so we gave them the key. When I left for work later that morning, they were loading about a dozen PCs into a minivan.

    They had told us it was a large, coordinated effort, so seeing the computers my first thought was child porn. We have two kids, 5 and 3, so at that point I wanted to know which of our tenants it was. They assured us it was nothing of the sort, however, so I declined to press further (the guy's innocent until proven guilty, after all, and while a warrant means probable cause it wasn't for something violent). I assumed it was something like this announcement -- most likely, I thought, selling DVDs of software and movies on eBay or in the local classified paper, i.e. profiting from piracy, rather than facilitating individual copying. Looks like I got it only partly right.

  • about the oldest groups that were raided (Score:3, Informative)

    by t35t0r ( 751958 ) on Thursday June 30, 2005 @09:58PM (#12956721)
    LND est ~1995?, RiSC(ISO) est ~1995?, and Myth est 1998.

    LND = Legends Never Die is a group that releases the ripped version of applications from CD's and DVD's (e.g. autocad, photoshop, etc). I guess they are dead now, but they may surprise the Feds yet.

    RiSCISO = is the ISO division (or a group that releases the full unripped CD/DVD version of high end applications, e.g. autocad with all the plugins and documentation left intact) of Rise In Superior Couriering. Couriering is the competition of moving files as quickly as possible between sites frequented by other couriers.

    Myth = this group releases ripped versions of games from the CD/DVD's without music, cut scene movies, and of course the annoying CD protection. This group was formed from what was Paradigm and some other group ..i forget. Vengeance (VGN) was a couriering group as well.

    Here's a picture of the guy and some more info: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/062905_nw_fed_bust .html [go.com]

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